My Chapters: a guide for social workers and admin staff
What you will receive when a foster carer sends a letter from My Chapters, how to file it using the child's reference number, and how the app keeps children's information private.
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My Chapters is an iPhone and iPad app that helps foster carers write the weekly or monthly letter your service asks for. Each letter is written to the child, in the carer's own words, with photos. Over time the letters build into a keepsake book for the child's life story.
What you'll receive
Carers send letters from their own email account, as a PDF attachment. Nothing goes through our servers.
Subject line
Weekly letter for Amelia (PER12345): 5 – 11 October 2026
- The child's first name, or just their initial if the carer's service asks for that.
- The child's reference number in brackets, if the carer has added one. Use it to find the right record in your case system.
- The week or month the letter covers.
Other emails follow the same pattern:
- Monthly letter for Amelia (PER12345): October 2026
- Ending letter for Amelia (PER12345): 8 October 2026
- Letter book for Amelia (PER12345): 12 May – 11 October 2026
The message says who the letter is for and repeats the reference number on a line of its own.
The PDF is an illustrated letter, signed and dated by the carers. Letters are numbered (Letter 1, Letter 2 …) from the start of the placement, so a missing week is easy to spot. The number is in the footer of each page.
Filing
Please file letters with the child's life story materials, or wherever your service keeps them. The letters are written for the child to read when they are older. They are not case recording and don't replace the carer's usual recording or reports.
Ending letters
When a child moves on, the app guides carers to write an ending letter. The guidance covers adoption and permanence, going home, moving after a placement has ended unexpectedly, independence, and short stays. It reminds carers to:
- explain the move in the same words you have used with the child
- make clear, where true, that the move isn't the child's fault
- avoid promises about contact unless they have been agreed with you
Carers may ask you how a move has been explained to the child, so their letter matches.
Letter books
Carers can bind a child's letters into a book (PDF): a cover, contents, chapters by month or age, and the ending letter last. It's suitable for printing and for the child's life story book. Large books may arrive through a file-sharing link rather than as an attachment.
Privacy
- Letters and photos are stored encrypted on the carer's iPhone, behind an optional passcode.
- There are no accounts, no servers and no analytics. Nothing a carer writes is sent to the app's makers.
- Letters only leave the phone when the carer sends, shares or backs them up.
- The app reminds carers to check with you before sharing photos of a child.
If your service has rules about keeping children's information on personal phones, please let carers know. The app asks them to check.
Questions
The appMy ChaptersLetters for children in foster careMore from the notebook
- 8 October 2026Guide
How to write a weekly letter to a child in foster care
Why the letters matter, what to put in them, and how to write for the adult the child will one day be. Practical tips for foster carers. - 8 October 2026Guide
Writing an ending letter when a child moves on
How foster carers can write a goodbye letter a child will keep, whether they're being adopted, going home, moving after a placement ended, or moving on to independence.